Chapter 13 

 Marine Mammals 



Authors: Patricia Shettig, Cheryl Klink 



Two orders of marine mammals inhabit the nearshore Gulf of Maine region: 

 Pinnipedia (seals) and Cetacea (whales and dolphins). Twenty-one species of 

 whales and porpoises and five species of seals have been reported in the Gulf 

 of Maine but only five species in all are common to coastal Maine. The others 

 are either uncommon, rare, or are found mainly far out to sea. Most cetaceans 

 exhibit rather clear migratory patterns, that is, they swim northerly along 

 the coast in the spring and southerly in the fall and apparently are absent or 

 scarce in winter. The Harbor seal, however, is a year round resident. 

 Because of their mobility and observed seasonal migrations along the coast, 

 most cetaceans have only a seasonal role in the ecology of coastal waters. 



Coastal Maine waters from the Bay of Fundy to New Hampshire are vitally 

 important to many northwest Atlantic populations. This region is the major 

 range of harbor porpoises and harbor seals and is essential for feeding and 

 breeding (Katona et al. 1977). It is also part of the native range of the 

 gray seal, whose populations were reduced by hunting in the past. The area 

 east of Penobscot Bay, particularly the Mt. Desert Rock region and the 

 approaches to the Bay of Fundy, appears to be an important summer feeding area 

 for humpback and finback whales. Two endangered whales, the northern right 

 whale and the humpback whale, make regular use of the approaches to the Bay of 

 Fundy each year (Gaskin et al. 1979). 



Data for determining the abundance and changes in abundance of whale species 

 for the northwest Atlantic, the Gulf of Maine, and coastal Maine generally are 

 scattered and/or intermittent. Until recently, for example, no systematic or 

 sustained counts of cetaceans have been made and most of the data available 

 are from "chance" observations. 



The Bureau of Land Management's Cetacean and Turtle Assessment Program 

 (CETAP) , conducted by the University of Rhode Island, is presently in its 

 second year of field data collection on the size and distribution of cetacean 

 populations from the Gulf of Maine to the coast of North Carolina. In 

 addition, the New England Aquarium is currently coordinating detailed studies 



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